This perpetual calendar includes:
- Remarkable testimonies of souls won to the Savior
- Explanations of gospel concepts
- Answers to frequently-asked questions
- Stories of real-life witnessing opportunities
- Encouragements and tips for sharing the glorious gospel
January 4
Sir Robert Anderson, head of Scotland Yard from 1888-1901, was one of England’s premiere legal minds. He tells of his encounter with God after hearing a sermon by a preacher named John Hall. Anderson wrote of being captivated by his message of “forgiveness of sins, and eternal life as God’s gift of grace, unreserved and unconditional, to be received by us as we sat in our pews.” But Anderson was not convinced and asked if he could walk the preacher home. At one point, Hall turned to Anderson. “I tell you, as a minister of Christ and in His name, that there is life for you here and now if you will accept Him. Will you accept Christ or will you reject Him?” After a long pause, Anderson replied, “In God’s name I will accept Christ.” He concludes the account by saying, “Not another word passed between us; but after another pause, he wrung my hand and left me. And I turned homeward with the peace of God filling my heart.” —from The Life of Sir Robert Anderson
Today’s Reading: Genesis 10-12 Memorize: Deuteronomy 6:4-5
January 3
Bertrand Russell, philosopher and mathematician, was the author of Why I am Not a Christian. Katherine Tait, Russell’s daughter, wrote: “I would have liked to convince my father that I had found what he had been looking for, the ineffable something he had longed for all his life. I would have liked to persuade him that the search for God does not have to be vain. But it was hopeless. He had known too many…bleak moralists who sucked the joy from life and persecuted their opponents; he would never have been able to see the truth they were hiding.” Russell wrote in his Autobiography, “Nothing can penetrate the loneliness of the human heart except the highest intensity of the sort of love the religious teachers have preached” (p 146). It’s true: “I am the Lord, and there is no one else…I girded you, though you have not known Me” (Isa 45:5). Russell used the mind God gave him to argue himself out of the only loving relationship he knew could fill the void in the human heart.
Today’s Reading: Genesis 7-9 Memorize: Numbers 23:19
January 2
Charles Stanley (1821-1890), when given the opportunity to speak to a large crowd of Roman Catholics, said: “I want to prove that the doctrine of the Church of Rome, in the year 60, is the only true doctrine.” He showed them “that we are not in any uncertainty as to which was the true church at Rome in 60.…Neither were we left in any uncertainty as to what were the true doctrines taught. We have an inspired account of those doctrines…From Romans 1–3, we found the ruin of man through sin…I then went on to show God’s righteousness revealed in the glorious plan of redemption—how God is righteous through the death of Jesus in justifying all who believe Him. ‘Their faith is reckoned for righteousness’ (Rom 4:5)…and they did not hope to make their peace with God. They had peace with God: ‘Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (5:1). Here is the true doctrine of the church at Rome in the year 60.”
Today’s Reading: Genesis 4-6 Memorize: Genesis 2:16-17
January 1
“This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you” (Ex 12:2). As a new year begins, may we enter fully into the high privilege of our relationship in the Lord Jesus Christ. “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5). Built up to offer up spiritual sacrifices—that must be first. Let us resolve to begin each day in the honest and real personal enjoyment of fellowship with the Lord. Then Peter adds: “But you are…a royal priesthood…that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvellous light” (v 9). We are to go forth and show forth the excellencies of our Savior to those still in the dark. Both as worshippers and witnesses, we have the high honor of lifting up heaven’s lovely Man. As Samuel Rutherford wrote: “Christ possessed by faith here is young heaven and glory in the bud.”
Today’s Reading: Genesis 1-3 Memorize: Genesis 1:27; 2:7
December 31
“We desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb 6:11-12). “A continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.” —C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. 118
Today’s Reading: Revelation 21-22 Memorize: Revelation 21:8December 30
Arnot McIntee tells the story of a preacher at Orator’s Corner in Hyde Park, London, England. A heckler interrupted: “Ladies and gentlemen, you’ve been hearing this chap talk about God, heaven, sin, the devil and hell. I hope you won’t believe a word of it. I don’t. I refuse to believe anything I can’t see.” Another man spoke out: “Friends, I hear that not far from here runs a river. I don’t believe it. Many say the grass here is green and there are shrubs which have beautiful blooms. I don’t believe it. By now most of you think I’m talking like a fool. The more I talk like this, the more you are convinced I must be blind. And you’re right; I was born blind. But does that justify my not believing in the beautiful creation around us?” Turning to the skeptic, he continued, “You, sir, have disproved nothing the preacher said. What you did prove is that you are spiritually blind. That’s why you don’t believe what many people here know to be true. ‘…if you would believe you would see the glory of God’ (Jn 11:40).”
Today’s Reading: Revelation 19-20 Memorize: Revelation 21:3-4February 29
Adoption, or “son-placing,” is the ultimate goal God has set for believer (Eph 1:5) at the end of time, bringing us into the fullness of eternal realities. In Paul’s writings the ideas of “children” and “sons” are different. Becoming a child is a generative change: we are born into the family and share common life. Becoming a son is a legal change, as when we see a sign “Smith and Sons.” This doesn’t announce the birth of a child, but that the son is being brought into privilege and responsibility. We are made sons at the moment of salvation and thus already have received a spirit of adoption “whereby we cry, Abba, Father,” (Rom 8:14-15), but the son-placing will occur at the time of the redemption of the body (Rom 8:23). By clinging to the law, Israel failed to enter into sonship (Rom 9:4), a privilege into which we come solely the work of Christ (Gal 4:1-7). Note the references to “My God” in Matthew 27:46 and John 20:17, with the addition of “My Father and your Father.”
Today’s Reading: Joshua 3-5 Memorize: Ecclesiastes 12:13-14